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The deeprealms were such a curious thing.
How they came to be was a mystery in itself, but despite their unnatural existence they proved to be a place of solace for many.
Whether it be during the war raising many a children safe from harm, or simply providing a quiet place away from everything else in life to be alone with your thoughts, truly it was both a blessing and a curse.
For Corrin it was indeed both.
Hoshido. Nohr. Valla. Corrin had got the unnerving sense that she had seen and experienced it all. Feeling and reliving the deaths of her family due to the consequences of her own actions, friends dying in vain from her failure as a leader. It was all just so much at once. It overwhelmed Corrin, her mind body and soul. She had to get away just for a little while, just to achieve some semblance of peace of mind.
Although her family was well and her companions alive, the idea of previously being responsible of their deaths at a different point in time began plaguing her night and day. The first instance of these visions happened on any normal day. She was watching as her dear sisters Elise and Sakura were playing with each other, while their elder brothers Xander and Ryoma were playing a new Nohrian tactical boardgame. Nothing out of the ordinary. It was peaceful, as they all well deserved after such a long and arduous war.
Corrin remembered. Elise had come running to her to show her something, and then Corrin saw it. Elise was dead. Bleeding out into Xander's arms, who had the most frightening, crazed look in his eyes, Corrin could barely even recognize him.
It happened again at dinner the next day, when Ryoma was passing a bowl to Hinoka. Once again it was a everyday thing, but out of nowhere the image seared into Corrin's mind like a flame. Ryoma on his knees with a sword pierced through his stomach, the action committed by no one but Ryoma himself.
As the days went on more horrible visions burrowed their way into Corrin's mind. Every bad choice she made, even ones out of her control like her just existing were stabbing into her like a thousand arrows. Harsh voices calling her 'useless', 'weak' and saying that she paled in comparison to a former Lord's of days past, things that didn't even make sense to her at the time.
Why? What had she done to deserve these visions of cruelty from another time that wasn't even her own? So much hatred? All she did was live, and even then that seemed like it was all it took for these malicious shades to attack and degrade her day in and day out.
She slipped away during the devil hours of the night when the pleasantries of sleep were robbed from her once more, stumbling as she ran as fast as could to somewhere. Anywhere to get away.
The visions and voices were relentless, getting louder and louder, pounding in her head before......
Silence.
She opened her eyes full of relief as she looked around in disbelief, as if it were folly that she had finally found herself completely isolated from everything, including her own thoughts.
She had stumbled upon a Deeprealm. How she didn't really care. The semantics of it all were the farthest thing she was concerned with.
The realm looked different than the others previously visited. It was dark, with fog surrounding her no matter where she turned, no indication if it was dusk or dawn. It was empty, with exception of a single stone throne that extended to the sky of this world, that for some reason felt sad.
Unable to keep herself in check any longer, tears began to well up in her eyes, spilling out like rain as she wailed into the universe, falling to her knees clenching her chest as it beat with unfathomable despair.
Corrin cried and cried to no one, wallowing in her solitude away from her family. She was unable to breathe a word of her predicament to anyone for fear they would call her problems delusions. They loved her dearly but after the war many would assume it as something ridiculous since they were obviously still alive and unharmed. If someone were to call her worries fake, she wasn't sure she would have been able to handle it rationally. That is if you could call her running away into a mysterious world rational.
Suddenly....footsteps. Corrin could hear them approaching but she couldn't determine where. Her head shot up to look around but the tears never stopped falling. She wept still as she attempted to wipe her tears but they were unending, as if she were a bottomless lake spilling out for all eternity.
Then Corrin saw her. A tall, strangely dressed woman with hair like the depths of the ocean and eyes as wide as the moon who had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Her attire was so bizarre and yet she captivated Corrin completely who looked up at her in awe, even as the crying never stopped.
Silently, the woman kneeled down and gently wiped a tear from Corrin's stained face, her pale finger cool to the touch. It made Corrin flinch from the unexpectedly icy sensation and the surprisingly lack of personal space given that the two strangers had just met. Worriedly, Corrin shook her head and steadied her voice the best she could, the shakiness still apparent as she spoke.
"Oh! I-I'm s-sorry! So sorry! I didn't m-mean to bother anyone!"
The woman tilted her head slightly to the side, eyes staring into Corrin's very soul it felt like. Had she even blinked yet? Corrin shook her head again, dismissing her thoughts.
"What are you sorry for? The woman inquired. Her voice as steely as the blade she carried on her person, though undeniably it held a slight softness to her cadence.
Such a simple question and it completely took Corrin aback. She stuttered, trying to speak the words that were failing to escape from her mouth.
"Crying-" She settled on, blurting it out rather awkwardly though she felt foolish afterward. She attempted to salvage whatever was left of her dignity. "And i-intruding onto your world. It was never m-my intention to bother anyone with my problems..." Her gaze turned downward, feeling heat from embarrassment of someone of her status. Some Princess she was.
Then the woman did something that startled her again. She brushed a strand of her starlight hair away from her wet eyes, tucking it back behind her ear. The action was so gentle, not quite mother like but akin to something like a authority figure, or a teacher. Comforting her student after a difficult day. Whatever it was, it brought Corrin great solace.
"Why do you feel like have to apologize for crying?" She said plainly, clear as day. There wasn't a particular emotion behind those words but the impact of them were unmeasurable. She continued. "You speak of yourself as a burden, but you have done nothing wrong. So why?"
Corrin tensed up, and like a sword her statement cut through her as if she was paper, thin and defenseless much like she felt. Tears resumed pouring out of her, unable to stop them as she pleaded her worries to this beautiful stranger.
"But I have done something wrong! I'm worthless! Voices from the aether itself berate me without a moments rest! I-I was responsible for the deaths of my dearest family! My friends! I saw it! My mind is relentless in showing me things, horrible things that I have done! Would have done-have done...I don't know what they are, but I feel it! I hear it! Everything!! I-I've even seen myself fighting these-these people I've never met before, only to be viscerally despised when I come out victorious-I don't understand any of this! But I must deserve this... why else...why else... "
Corrin wept into her hands, her shoulders violently shaking from the immense emotional toll this was taking on her body. Soon she became painfully aware of how loud her sniffles and sobs actually were as they filled the space between them. Although it felt like an eternity, in actuality there was only a short pause before the stranger hummed, nodding her head ever so slightly.
"Ah, I see now."
This was it. Corrin clenched her eyes shut, bracing herself for the inevitable mockery that was to come. What was she doing? Blabbing about her weird and specific troubles that when spoken outloud sounded absolutely crazy. When she peaked one eye open slightly, she was surprise to find that the woman was looking at her not with derision nor disgust. No. Instead the mysterious woman looked at Corrin with such a gaze that she couldn't even begin to describe the feeling it invoked. The only thing she knew for certain was the instant relief she felt when their eyes connected. She could breathe again.
The woman whose hair flowed like an ocean of waves smiled at her, sincerely without any trace of ulterior motive. Her eyes shining like moon pools through the dark, embracing Corrin in their emptiness, which she greatly accepted.
She offered a tiny nod. "Why is your heart so woeful for things you have no control over?"
Corrin was speechless. Her brain stumbling to come up with something, anything. She paused, eyes wide. "What?"
The woman hummed. "You and I, the life that fate has chosen for us, we share a similar burden. It often feels like the weight of numerous worlds and the eyes of thousands are on you, does it not?"
Slowly, Corrin nodded dumbfounded. "Yes...that's exactly it, but how-"
"Our path is woven into many different things. Some completed. Some left unfinished. But the only path that matters, is the one you are creating right now."
Carefully, the woman placed her hands in Corrin's. Gently pulling her up off the floor. Corrin wiped the remnants of her tears as she stood, marveling at the statue like stature of this curious stranger. She stayed silent as she listened to every word.
Still holding The young Princess' hands in hers, she smiled. "Let me ask you this; as of right now, does your family still live?"
Again Corrin nodded, "Yes."
"Are your companions safe?"
"They are...?"
"And before you came here, you were at home with all of them? In your proper world?"
"Yes, but-"
"Then why should anything else matter? The visions, try as they might to plague us, but they are not apart of this life that we live, right now. Your journey has brought you to an end where you and your family are together. Correct?"
Corrin's eyes shimmered with realization, stunned into continued silence as she nodded in return. The woman continued.
"And those voices? They can spit all the poison they want, but they don't know us. It's pointless to try to please the hungry snake that eats its own tail, stuck in a never ending cycle of hunger that will never be filled. Why should the words of the faceless dictate your emotions?"
Corrin shook her head this time. "No, they shouldn't!"
"People like us, it can be difficult to be presented with knowledge that hurts us, but you must remember. You are control of who you are, right now. And that is what matters most. A million versions of ourselves might exist at a different point in time, space, multiple times over. But the only one that counts-" She tapped Corrin's breastplate twice, smiling warmly. "Is right here."
At that a brilliant blue light opened up in the empty space before them, shining brightly through the dim atmosphere. Like a miracle the shadow that was hanging over Corrin's head dissapeared, everything brightening before her up like the dawn of a new day. Corrin looked into the portal and took a single step forward before stopping, turning around at the woman one last time.
"When you said, people like us....do you also...?"
The woman nodded, placing one hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "I'm no stranger to being despised for being who I am, as well as seeing the different paths of my choices from another time. It's the burden us heroes have to bear in this series after all. But never forget that you are not alone."
Corrin's heart felt great relief at the revelation that someone knew of her troubles, but soon raised her brow slightly at the questionable terminology. "Series?" She pondered, "What do you- whoa!!"
"Farewell Princess! We'll meet again, in time!"
Before Corrin could finish her sentence the woman had nudged her through the portal, blinding lights overtaking her senses until she felt the familiar yet prickly sensation of landing straight onto the grass, quickly realizing it was the field right next to her Hoshidan home. She groaned as she fell backward, lying face up as she gazed at the wide open sky.
Suddenly, a cloud seemed to cast a hefty shadow over her body, except it wasn't a shadow. Her eldest Hoshidan brother grinned amusingly down at his draconian sibling, extending his hand down as a offering. He laughed to himself, eyes beaming with warmth.
"There are better places to rest than on the ground you know? Here,"
For a split second she saw blue hair, of a man this time, who reached down to her. Who was...?
Corrin blinked rapidly as she shook her head of the groggy feeling before grabbing hold of Ryoma's hand. He hoisted her up with ease, never losing his smile.
"When I saw you weren't in your room, this was the first place I looked. Something told me I would find you here..." Ryoma noticed she was giving him a rather odd look, like she had seen something beyond him. He tweaked his brow.
"What's with that look? There something on my face?"
"Oh!" Corrin gasped, waving her hand nonchalantly, offering a smile of her own. "Don't worry brother, it's nothing. Sorry to bother you."
At that Ryoma landed a hearty slap upon her back, sending her lurching forward in surprise. She shot him a puzzled look as he laughed, and what a wonderful laugh it was.
"No need for any of that, Corrin! You are never a burden to any of us. Come. Breakfast is about to start." He motioned to the palace with his neck, turning to head off in that direction with Corrin not far behind.
"Lead the way!"
As they made the trek back home, Corrin hummed quietly as she followed her brother, allowing her eyes to veer off to watch the edge of dawn rise above the horizon.
Her heart was at peace, minus one thing that kept bugging her at the back of her mind. She thought to herself,
'I wonder...why did that sound familiar just now?'